Germany : Day 11 : Home Again, Home Again, Jiggity Jig!

Dan & Marissa dropped us off at the Frankfurt airport Monday morning, and after being delayed a bit, we finally boarded the plane to Newark.

Sad to have to go back to work soon . . . but we were excited to wear our new Germany jackets.

So fun story. . . our flight got in late to Newark and we had like 45 minutes to go back through customs, re-check our bags, go through security, and make it to the gate . . . . so we are all literally RUNNING to get there . . . . as the people at the airline say "you need to hurry!" . . . . so we FINALLY get to our gate and guess what?!!? The flippin flight was delayed!!!! Ugh!! Why didn't they tell us that when we were running through the entire airport?!?! (This was the customer service line for continental b/c apparently a lot of other people were having issues too).

So at first it was only delayed another hour, then another hour, then another hour, then they kept switching gates on us.

See how happy we were?!

Then we switched gates again, without them even having a departure time (I think this was the Continental customer service line . . . grew a LITTLE).

What?! The gate they told us to go to says Ithaca on it!

But alas, we finally boarded our plane to Pittsburgh (4 hours after we were supposed to leave). We were kinda excited to get back by 8pm Monday so we would have some time to relax before going to work the next day, but we didn't get back until after midnight.

At least we got home safe, right?! (That's what I'm supposed to say when the flights were delayed and crappy.)

But really, I do want to say how blessed we truly were with this trip. If you remember this and this and this, our flight was delayed because of a volcano erupting ash. We could only reschedule for the next week (out of the rest of the year), and wouldn't you know, the ash stopped! So then when we got back. That day when we landed in Newark, there were reports of more ash spewing, and flights started getting canceled again. We just made it. God was definitely watching out for us and wanted us to get over there to see Dan & Marissa!

It really was a great trip overall. It was so nice of Dan & Marissa to let us crash at their place for 11 days! And it was so awesome to experience so much with the entire family. Can't wait until our next trip! (Australia? Hawaii?)

Germany : Day 1 : Here We Come!

Hey! Remember when I said I would post some more Germany pics 4 weeks ago?! Yeah. . . oops!! Time flies when you are having fun!

Anywho . . . .I ended up taking 1,146 pictures in Germany!! Crazy!! Gotta love those digital cameras though!

So here we go . . .

If you remember from this post, our trip to Germany was canceled due to the volcanic ash. We really had no idea when we would be able to go, but we re-booked our flights for the week after and prayed and prayed. That was the only other week we could go for the rest of the year (due to schedule conflicts and a little baby coming soon!) Well, that praying sure paid off, because the ash died down and we were on our way!!


Here we are at the Pittsburgh airport . . . notice Sommer's not so happy face . . . oh what's that!? We have to pay for Bryce?! Children under 2 years of age are allowed to ride free (by sitting on parents lap) for DOMESTIC flights only . . . we didn't know that. For international flights, you have to pay 10% of the price of the ticket even though they are still sitting on a lap and don't have any extra luggage . . . . and since we didn't find out until that day, and the prices of tickets that day were $2,500 to go to germany, they had to pay $250 for her ticket instead of $60!! Ridiculous!


Bryce discovered something new . . the people mover! And loooved it! When we weren't on the plane, we were at the people mover going back and forth in the airport. It was so cute! And so exhausting.


On our way to Newark!! This flight was terrible! We had to go down below the clouds because of "air traffic control" and it was super bumpy the whole ride! Now, I do love rollar coaster rides, but not for 2 hours straight. We were all very sick, and my sister-in-law (don't tell her I told you) even puked. It was quite the ride. But hey, we got there safe, right?!


We had a 4 or 5 hour layover in Newark until we left for Frankfurt (which actually went by very fast). We ate some food, and saw Andre Agassi (tennis player who sat right behind us), I worked a little, and of course we went on the people mover again . . .



and again . . .


Grammy fed Bryce her bubba!


Our plane finally arrived! (You can see NYC in the distance!)


The plane (although not nearly as comfy as I was hoping and not nearly as much foot room as I was expecting), had awesome monitors in the head rests in front of our seats.


It had so much cool information about the flight.


Including maps and your location at that certain point in time.


And it also had movies, tv shows, music, and games!! Very fun!

After playing with those for a while and getting our food (which was surprisingly very yummy!), we all tried to get a bit of shut eye on our overnight 9hr-ish plane flight to Frankfurt.


We would see Dan & Marissa & Germany in the morning!